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"A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch." - James Beard

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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Pork Tenderloin with Plum Chutney

The other night after work I was planning a simple shrimp pasta dinner but realized a basket of plums was becoming overripe and needed to be used. I'd been thinking of shrimp for dinner but an online search for shrimp and plums didn't turn up anything appealing. I did find this recipe on Epicurious for pork tenderloin with plum chutney. It called for the pork to be wrapped in pancetta or prosciutto, which I didn't have, but I did have some leftover bacon from the weekend that needed to be used, so perfect! This was a lot more involved than I'd been planning but it wasn't too much trouble and it was so delicious it was worth the effort!

I used these local blue plums but any plums will do. You can peel them if you want but it's not like the queen is coming over. I don't know if I'd even peel plums for her.

Pit and slice the plums. You can see some of these are a bit mushy. Perfect for cooking.

Slice an onion and sauté in a little oil until soft.

Throw in a tablespoon of mustard seeds and toast for a few seconds.

Add in about 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup cider vinegar, a tablespoon of minced garlic and the same of minced ginger, 1/4 cup of water and a bay leaf.

Simmer a few minutes and add in the plums. Those skins will give it a beautiful colour as it cooks.

Cover and simmer 8 minutes, then uncover and let it simmer and thicken for about 20 minutes.

It will be a lovely, thick chutney once it's done.

Meanwhile, prepare your pork tenderloin.

Mince 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary and mix with a tablespoon of dried herbes de Provence and a tablespoon of olive oil.

Rub this all over the pork tenderloin.

Now you'll need about 6 slices of bacon (or pancetta or prosciutto).

Carefully wrap the bacon around the pork until it is completely covered.

Secure each bacon slice with a toothpick or use kitchen twine.

Grill the pork over high heat about 8-10 minutes and then move to low heat for another 15-20 minutes until cooked through. Tip from the griller: it'll be very smoky and you may see flames when you first put the pork on high.

Once cooked, cover in foil and let it rest while you rewarm the chutney.

Remove the toothpicks and use a very sharp knife to slice the pork so you don't shred the bacon.

Slice into medallions. We're serving this with grilled zucchini and a wild rice and basmati blend.

Top the pork with the plum chutney.

For this unexpectedly fancy weeknight dinner we also broke out a nice bottle of wine. The bacon and herb wrapped pork was amazing, we'll definitely use this technique again. The chutney was a nice touch and a great way to use up ripe fruit.